Garment bag



B. A. LEVlTT GARMENT BAG April 29, 1952 Filed May 27, 1950 INVENTOR.

5ENJAM/A/ LEV/7T ATTOE/VEYS llnlllllllllllllllllllllll I [IInllllllllllllllllllllll- Patented Apr. 29, 1952 UNITED STATES RQTENTGFFICE GARMENT BAG Benjamin A. Levitt, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor toA. L. Siegel 00., Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New YorkOriginal application February 27, 1947, Serial No.

731,206. Divided and this application May 27, 1950, Serial No. 164,806

2 Claims.

strain is applied directly to the seams under discussion, particularlybecause those seams conform to the configuration of the top and bottomframes which give shape to the garment bag.

1947, now Patent No. 2,524,982, entitled, Method 5 In addition to theseinherent constructional of Manufacturing Garment Bag. defects, impellingeconomic considerations miti- Garment bags into which various'articlesof gate against the prior art construction. A very clothing may be.placed for protective purposes, substantial portion of the cost ofmanufacture of which bags are adapted themselves to be hung a garmentbag resides in the assembly thereof and in closets or the like, takemany forms. The in particular in the seaming thereof. Thus, any mostcommon of these forms comprises a recmethod of construction which wouldminimize tangular cross-section so that the individual garthe number ofseams is obviously commercially ments may be individually hung andremoved advantageous. In the past it has been necessary, from thegarment bag preferably through the side when joining the top or bottomwall of a garment thereof without the necessity of removing the bag tothe front, back and side walls thereof, to entire garment bag from itssuspension. Such form four separate seams corresponding to the bags havebeen formed of cloth and, more refour sides of the top or bottom surfacein four cently, of plastic sheeting, the cloth or plastic separateoperations. As soon as one seam was sheeting defining the walls of thebag and being completed, it was necessary for an operator to maintainedso as to define a rectangular or any turn the fabric 90 so that the nextseam might other desired cross-section by means of suitable be formed.To attach both the top and bottom, framework disposed at the top andoptionally at eight separate operations were necessary. the bottom ofthe bag. Moreover, the problem of providing a plurality Garment bags ofthis nature have become exof sheets of difierent sizes called forconsiderable ceedingly popular commercial-wise but as contailoring workand required an extensive instructed heretofore they present certainpotential ventory. defects which render themmore or less inefficient Itis the prime object of the present invention in the attainment of theirdesigned end. to provide a garment bag of improved construc- One of thepurposes of such bags is to protect tion having a minimum of seams. theclothing stored therein from the effects of It is yet another object ofthe present invendirt and moisture in the air. Obviously the more tionto provide such a bag in which the seams seams involved in the formationof the bag the are so located with respect to the framework of lessprotection is afforded against these deleterithe garment bag as tominimize the strains apous influences. As ordinarily constructed, thetop, plied thereto during use of the bag. bottom, front, back. and sidewalls of the bags are Another object of this invention is to provide ofseparate strips or sheets of material each of such a bag formed of aminimum of separate which is joined to the adjacent strip or sheet atsheets of material, and in the preferred embodieach of its edges bymeans of a seam. This means ment, of but a single sheet. that a bag witha rectangular cross-section will While the present invention is hereindescribed have twelve seams. Even if the front, back and with particularreference to a garment bag, it will side walls be formed of a singlesheet of material be appreciated that in its broader aspects itresuitably joined together at a single seam, the lates to any hollowcontainer formed of flexible total number of seamsin the garment bag isonly material and to the method of forming the same. reduced to nine. Itwill also be apparent that when the term Moreover, those seams which aremost susseaming is used, any type of seaming may be ceptible tospreading or unsealing, to wit, the employed. As herein specificallydescribed, the seams at the edges of the top and bottom walls seaming isaccomplished by means of a stitching of the container, are noteliminated. While the or sewing operation, but it will be appreciatedweight of the bag itself is generally inconsethat when thermoplasticsheeting is employed, quential, it quite often happens that garments theseaming may be accomplished by heat-sealbecome disengaged from withinthe bag and fall to the bottom thereof and the far from inconsequentialweight of these garments is then supported almost exclusively by theseams joining the top andbottom walls to the other walls: This ing,either alone or in addition to stitching. Other variations of seamingwill no doubt suggest themselves, such as the use of adhesives orsoftenin solvents.

' To the accomplishment of the foregoing objects and such other objectsas may hereinafter appear, the present invention relates to theconstruction of a garment bag as defined in the appended claims and asset forth in the specification, taken together with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 represent elevational views of successive stages in theformation of the garment bag of the present invention from a singleflexible sheet;

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are top views of Figs. 1, 2 and 3, respectively;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the top frame for thegarment bag;

Fig. 8 is a similar view of the bottom frame;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a completed and expanded garment bagmade according to the present invention with parts thereof broken away;

Fig. 10 is a detailed view on enlarged scale of the side wall-top walljoint formed therein; and

Figs. 11 and 12 are views corresponding to Figs. 1 and 2 but showingstages in the formation of a garment bag from a plurality of sheets offlexible material.

The method of making the garment bag of the present invention will firstbe described, the resultant improved construction of said bag becomingapparent as the method is developed. That method, considered in it broadaspects, comprises superimposing two layers A and B of flexible sheeting(Figs. 1 and 11). This sheeting may be cloth, either plain orornamented, or any of the well known plastic sheetings now on themarket.

The sides C and C of the two-ply formation thus produced are then foldedover the body portion D thereof (Fig. 2) so that at the thus formed edgesections 2 and 4 a four-ply formation is produced. One or both of theend edges E or E", which edges are preferably linear, are then seamed asby stitching 6, this seam including all of the plies of the folded edgesections 2 and 4 and of the body D. The resultant structure is thenturned inside out.

When the thus formed bag is caused to expand so that its top and bottomsurfaces conform to the desired outline, as by the use of top frame 8and bottom frame 10, it is found that for example the top and bottomwalls F and F of the bag are each composed of two portions G and H(Figs. 9 and 10) each of which are integral extensions of the front andback walls l2 and M respectively, these two portions being joinedtogether by a single straight seam 16 intermediate said end wall F.

It will be noted that by thi method of construction only a single seamis necessary to form the top of the garment bag, this seam being linearso that it may be made in a single seaming operation, thus materiallydecreasing the cost of manufacture of the bag, and that the seam is solocated on the finished garment bag that any strain imposed by theweight of articles on the bottom of said bag is insulated from said seamby the action of the frame 8 or If), the frames taking much of thestrain and thus ensuring that the seam will remain firm and thus prolongthe life of the bag and enhance its protective effect.

Figs. 1 through 10 illustrate the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention in which a complete garment bag is manufactured by forming butthree seams. A single sheet l8 of flexible material is first reverselyfolded on itself so as to define the two-ply formation illustrated inFigs. 1 and 4. The side C" thereof is initially open and that sidetherefore must be seamed as by the stitching 20, this seaming operationbeing so carried out as to incorporate in the thus formed seam anopening and closing means generally designated 22 which may specificallytake the form of a "zipper or slide fastener as illustrated in Fig. 9.This opening and closing means 22 provides for access to the interior ofthe container for removal and insertion of garments and also, in theformation of the container, provides an opening for a purposehereinafter to be described.

The sheet IB is preferably provided with a pair of eyelets 24 forcooperation with the suspending hooks 26 of the frame 8, and the sheetl8 may be interiorly re-enforced by means of fabric tabs 28.

As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 5, the sides C and C of the folded sheetof Fig. 1 are folded over the body D thereof an amount equal to one-halfof the desired depth of the container, that is to say, one-half thedesired width of the top wall F and of the side walls 30 thereof. Thetop and bottom end edges E and E of the thus folded formation are thenlinearly seamed as by the stitching 6 and 6 (Figs. 2 and 5). The thusformed object is then turned inside out via the opening in side Cprovided by the opening and closing means 22. This condition isillustrated in Figs. 3 and 6 and represents a collapsed garment baghaving a front wall A, a rear wall B and infolded side walls 30, the topand bottom end edges E and E of all of said walls being linearly seamedtogether.

The collapsed garment bag of Fig. 3 may be expanded and caused to assumeits desired shape by inserting therein, through the opening provided bythe opening and closing means 22, the top and bottom frames 8 and ID.The former of these may consist of a metal framework 32 of desired shapehaving a cross-bar 34 provided with a plurality of corrugations 36adapted to receive the hooks of hangers on which garments are mounted sothat said garments may be suspended within the garment bag, and withsuspending hooks 26 so mounted'as to project up from the cross-bar 34through the eyelets 24 of the sheet [8 so that the garment bag itselfand the garments stored therein may all be suspended from the hooks 26.The frame l0 may be a thin cardboard, plywood or metal sheet ofappropriate shape.

The construction of the garment bag as described is such that, ifproperly designed, the bag itself upon expansion will closely conform tothe frames 8 and in without the necessity of any special steps. It willbe noted that when this conformation has taken place, tucked-in portions38, best shown in Fig. 10, will form at the junction of the side walls30 and the top and bottom walls F and F. These tucked-in portionsconstitute integral extensions of the side walls 30.

The garment bag of Fig. 9 has by this method been constructed of asingle flexible sheet with but three seams, one intermediate of one ofthe side walls 30 and containing the opening and closing means 22 andone intermediate each of resting on the bottom thereof is primarilyresisted by the integral and unseamed portions of fabric which areadjacent to the metal framework 32 or the sides of the bottom frame [0.The seams l6 and [6' will therefore be insulated from said strain sothat the life of the bag and its protective action toward the garmentsstored therein are materially increased.

Although to form a container from a plurality of sheets rather than froma single sheet involves the making of at least one additional seam, andto that limited extent detracts from the benefits of the presentinvention, it is sometimes necessary or desirable that this mode ofconstruction be employed, as for example, where single sheets ofsufficient size for a complete container cannot commercially oreconomically be obtained. The first two stages of such a mode ofconstruction are illustrated in Figs. 11 and 12, which correspond toFigs. 1 and 2, and it will be apparent that the only difference involvedover the method previously described is that the edge C must be seamedas by stitching 20'. Otherwise the stages of construction are identicaland need not be here repeated. It will also be apparent that each of theindividual sheets which are superimposed one on the other may itself beformed of any desired number of individual strips or sheets.

By the method of construction above described a garment bag or otherhollow container may be more expeditiously and economically formed thanhas heretofore been possible and the container produced thereby ispossessed of desirable structural features which eliminate or migitatemany of the defects inherent in containers of this type which haveheretofore been manufactured. Not only is the container thus producedenhanced in strength and durability by virtue of the location of itsseams, but its protective action is also intensified by virtue of theminimum number of seams embodied in its construction and by virtue ofthe fact that they are so located that their tendency to part isminimized.

The particular embodiment of container here illustrated, a garment bagof conventional shape, is merely illustrative of the many applicationsto which my invention can be put and therefore many variations can bemade in the details of the method steps and constructional features hereshown without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined inthe following claims.

I claim:

1. A garment bag comprising a tubular sheath adapted to have asubstantially rectangular crosssection when open so as to define front,back, side and end walls, said sheath having a longitudinal seam with anopening therein, a linear seam securing the edges of said sheath at oneend thereof, the outer portions of said linear seam engaging quadruplethicknesses of said longitudinally seamed sheath, and said sheath beingturned inside out and given a substantially rectangular cross-sectionalshape, the parts of said sheath engaged by the outer portions of saidlinear seam being tucked in and under the end walls proper when saidsheath is opened to rectangular cross-section.

2. A garment bag comprising a tubular sheath adapted to have asubstantially rectangular crosssection when open so as to define front,back, side and end walls, said sheath having a longitudinal seam with anopening therein, a linear seam securing the edges of said sheath at anend thereof, the outer portion of said linear seam engaging quadruplethicknesses of said longitudinally seamed sheath, said linear seam beingon the same side of said sheath as said longitudinal seam, and saidsheath being turned inside out, so that both said seams are on theinside, and given a substantially rectangular cross-sectional shape, theparts of said sheath engaged by the outer portions of said linear seambeing tucked in and under the end walls proper when said sheath isopened to rectangular cross-section.

BENJAMIN A. LEVITT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 670,360 Lawler Mar. 19, 19011,666,704 Hunter Apr. 1'7, 1928 2,154,083 Bergstein Apr. 11, 19392,159,959 Ballentine May 30, 1939

